Students for Justice in Palestine at UW-Madison met Monday night for a general body meeting, where they discussed negotiations with the Board of Regents, hearings with the Office of Student Conduct and Affairs and future events.
SJP UW leaders highlighted a meeting last week with the Board of Regents regarding UW divestment from Israel.
The leaders expressed frustrations with the Board of Regents meetings, saying they met with representatives who could not answer their questions surrounding fund management and were unaware of the laws being discussed. SJP UW member Marco Vallejos said the Board of Regents uses manipulative and private tactics to invest in genocide, invest in weapons manufacturing and take away from students’ voices regarding the issue.
“We know they’re [Board of Regents] going to obstruct us. We know they’re not going to come with good intentions to that meeting,” Vallejos said.
SJP is advocating for divestment through Wisconsin statute 36.29 (1), according to SJP leaders. The leaders highlighted UW’s divestment from apartheid South Africa in 1978, using statute 36.29 (1).
“No such investment shall knowingly be made in any company, corporation, subsidiary or affiliate which practices or condones through its actions discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, creed or sex,” the statute reads.
The group discussed Wisconsin’s Anti-BDS order, #261 relating to the Prohibition of Discriminatory Boycotts of Israel in State Contracting. SJP UW member Dahlia Saba suggested if UW was sued for divesting from Israel, they could justify divestment by citing statute 36.29 (1).
“Maybe they get sued as a university, but then there is a court case there to say, this is the reason that we’re divesting,” said Saba.
SJP leaders discussed hearings between SJP members and the Office of Student Conduct and Affairs regarding misconduct during last spring’s encampment. Vallejos said SJP decided to take on the hearings rather than accept punishment and move forward because they want to pressure the university and publicly show they think UW is being unjust.
SJP UW member Abbie Klein said many members are currently appealing decisions that have already been made through an investigation by UW. Klein emphasized the only SJP members who received probation rather than a reprimand were Palestinian students, some of whom were not in the state at the time of the encampment.
“They’re actively seeking to give us consequences and stifle us as an organization, regardless of evidence, regardless of what there is to say, just by virtue of being pro-Palestine,” Klein said.
At the end of the meeting, SJP leaders discussed upcoming events, including a rally at the farmer’s market Oct. 5, and a showcase of documentary shorts detailing the conflict in Gaza at the Madison Central Library on Oct. 7.
